evolvify-topics, income-distribution = "In the period they were studying - from approximately 700BC to 250AD - they found elites came to dominate religious life and controlled the connection between communities and their gods - leading to conflict with traditional community leaders." ...... Two points to take from this: 1) Elites always take over the thing that controls the masses (we see the same thing today with the Republitards/Religious Right in bed with each other) and 2) Tribalism... traditional community leaders (tribal chiefs) were leading the people in decentralized ways, but the elites took over by centralizing power and bypassing the chiefs.

short-term-thinking = We never seem to learn that the devil we know is better than the one we don't. "This article has been updated to reflect recent Wikileaks revelations of US State Department leaks that show plans to destabilize Syria and overthrow the Syrian government as early as 2006. The leaks reveal that these plans were given to the US directly from the Israeli government and would be formalized through instigating civil strife and sectarianism through partnership with nations like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and even Egypt to break down the power structure in Syria to weaken Iran and Hezbolla."

"The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built in 2008, stores more than 850,000 seed samples from nations all over the world. Syrian Civil War Prompts First Withdrawal From Doomsday Seed Vault In The Arctic."

The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico; Oppenheimer remarked later that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Singlehandedly defeated 12-20 Taliban fighters who were storming his post. -------------------- "Corporal Pun, alone and believing he was about to die, decided to kill as many of the enemy as possible. During the engagement he reportedly spent all his ammunition, more than 400 rounds; used 17 hand grenades and a Claymore mine before battering the last fighter with the tripod of his machine gun. Two Taliban were still attacking his post when he set off the Claymore mine."

{hive-mind} "In our early past, in our still-biological past, 15,000 years ago we were hunter gatherers. We showed group cohesiveness and discrimination against other groups. It was adaptive. It was quite understandable that we evolved traits of group recognition, and making sure we recognized foreigners. This is my conviction that this is probably the early basis for our unfortunate xenophobic behavior that is still in us. It's a behavior that is now terribly maladaptive." ................... Also see "Learing To Thrive On Terra Humana" TAGS:[evolvify-topics,evolution,people,large-systems,me-stuff]

"Insects have killed more soldiers in wars than have swords and guns. I think that's kind of a cool fact that a lot of grownups don't know, and certainly a lot of kids don't realize. They really did determine the outcomes of many, many wars. Half a million of Napoleon's soldiers died of typhus and related bug-borne diseases."

This is why you always have to provide an "out" for an enemy. Surround them on 3 sides. If you surround them on 4 sides, they have no choice but to retaliate. A smart empire would not surround the world and make it a boiler room - they would have a release valve like a pressure cooker so that the pressure never gets too high. Learn to "lose" a little, it could save your empire.

SHOWS HOW PROHIBITING SOMETHING JUST SERVES TO MAKE US WANT IT MORE. AFTER THE BAN WAS LIFTED, INTEREST WENT AWAY:
In April of this year, the Obama administration lifted the press ban, which had been in place since the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Media outlets rushed to cover the first arrival of a fallen U.S. serviceman, and many photographers came back for the second arrival, and then the third.

But after that, the impassioned advocates of showing the true human cost of war grew tired of the story. Fewer and fewer photographers showed up. "It's really fallen off," says Lt. Joe Winter, spokesman for the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where all war dead are received. "The flurry of interest has subsided."

As advances in neuroscience bring all this into the realms of reality, there are ethical issues to consider. Last week, the NAS released a report assessing the military potential of neuroscience, providing a rare insight into how the military might invest its money to create future armies.

This weapon injects a frozen ball of compressed gas approximately the size of a basketball at 850psi nearly instantly. The effects of this injection will drop many of the world's largest land predators. The effects of the compressed gas not only cause

WE SHOULD HAVE COME UP WITH THIS. I AM TELLING YOU, AND I WILL SAY IT UNTIL I AM BLUE IN THE FACE, THE MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL/GOVERNMENT ARE RIFE FOR THE TAKING WHEN IT COMES TO INNOVATIVE IDEAS. SELLING TO PRISONS, SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS, ETC EASY AS CAKE WITH

I keep saying it. Government / military is an industry ripe with opportunity. C'mon we could have thought of this. At the very least, we could have offered ideas to the government, which I think they pay for. Talk to me more about that.